2017-05-15 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case

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EDWINA LLANES: Good morning. Thank you. I did not expect to be here this morning, but I felt compelled to be here. I was born and raised in, actually, I was born in South Kona, but I was raised at La‘aloa Beach with my ‘ohana, which is the Kāne’s, but I lived in Kahalu‘u Lagoon and I lived in Keauhou Bay, as well as Kailua-Kona because my ‘ohana is from there. We are all interconnected with the Kahulamū’s, the Smith family, the Kanuha’s. We are, we are all from the same blood. But the reason why I am here is that I need, I was kicked out of my ‘ōkole, I guess, because I read the paper two days late, my husband got the Sunday paper and then he had all this mantle and he had the Saturday paper; so, when I read it last night, I’m not prepared, but I was compelled to be here. Because the area that we are talking about is very dear to me. First of all we lived in Keauhou when I was a little girl. My dad was a commercial fisherman. That’s the only livelihood we had. He fished, he went from Keauhou Bay all the way out to Kahalu‘u Bay and to La‘aloa to get the ‘ōpelu. I was his partner because you needed two people to fish ‘ōpelu, one to help tie the net, one to throw the charm. So, I know the area very, very well. We, we went everywhere, we walked for miles, we had no cars. My brother had a bike, and we either stole it from him to go down to the Kahulamū’s because I was, you know, we were good friends and cousins, and Gertrude, the sister, and I was the same grade. But from Kona Lagoon on the, towards the Surf and Racquet Club used to be my tūtū’s house, you know, the Ho‘olapa’s, and they took care of the people from Keakealani’s, you know, so we are all really close. And I could name every one of the families from Keauhou Bay all the way down to Kailua, because that’s where we, we, we went when we were young. Every Sunday we always congregated at the Palace. Our Tūtū Solomon took care of the Palace at the time, so we had great fond memories along the way. But Kahalu‘u Beach at the time when I was young, was a lagoon, and it is a lagoon, because where the parking lot is right now, it was a lagoon. We had a house that we lived in. We took the little ramp and we stayed there for a part of the time. And if we didn’t stay there, we stayed at Keauhou Beach at Carlsmith’s, because my family, you know, my dad was a fisherman and he knew everyone, including Aunty Lily’s māmā who had a great mango tree in her yard, which we did not steal, we had to ask her, you know. But everybody knew everybody. And we did not need any water bottles. We did not know of any water bottles. There was no stores. We, like they said, we stopped at certain places, we got our hands that was our cups, we went down, then we scooped up the water everywhere, including Kahalu‘u, all the way down to Charthouse, all the little places all the way down to where we needed to get at the Kailua Pier where we congregated most of the time. So, everyone there is dear to my heart. And it would have been, for me to not come today because I’m not prepared, like I said, I read it last night, I have to say something that this place is really precious, because there was the old, Mr. Don Ping, he had a two-story house, he had a small little canoe, he would go out in his canoe and come back, he had big, you know, nets and everything. So, I mean, my husband learned how to throw a net and he used to go fishing down there to supplement our income because we both worked at the Kona Inn, we had low, you know, periods, we were paid a dollar and ten cents an hour, it didn’t make, you know, ends meet. So, we go catch fish and go right down to Kahalu‘u, and then pūlehu, you know, and have some barbecue. In fact – I’m dating myself – my husband and I had our wedding reception at Kahalu‘u at the biggest pavilion. That’s where all of our children’s parties were, you know. But, like Aunty Lily said, it’s really precious. You, you know, people don’t understand that where they could put graves is where they could put. My sister died when she was a young girl at La‘aloa Beach, and they took her all the way up to Kalaoa – that’s above where Ahikawa where Kona Palisades is up there – they put her in The Church of Jesus Christ of 20 2017-05-15 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case